Armenia

Loyal readers of this blog will know that most of my time is spent in the mountains and deserts of the world, hiking, trekking, and climbing. On occasion, though, I crave some culture, history, and decent vegan cuisine. With bases in Italy and Britain this past summer, I was ideally situated to visit several capital cities in Europe that were new to me. Others cities served as stepping off points for mountain adventures. In all case except one, my main means of exploring each city was by walking, in every instance including a guided tour of the cities’ more historic areas.

I trust you will enjoy this change from my usual mountain and desert photos to mark the milestone of blog post #100. Rather than present the photos in chronological order, I have listed them from my least to most favorite cities visited in 2023.

#9. Islamabad

Staying in Islamabad before and after any trekking or climbing excursion to Pakistan is mandatory. Because of safety reasons we stayed in a mediocre hotel in an area of town with nothing interesting to see, no decent restaurants, and no walking possibilities except once as a group to change money. (Speaking of which, if money is no object, the hotel to stay at is La Serena). And while it was my least favorite city this past summer, there were a couple of highlights worth sharing from our guided bus tour.

At the Faisal Mosque. Named after King Faisal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia (who funded it), this mosque is a symbol of the friendship between the two countries. Although Friday prayers were is session at the time we visited, the worshipers largely ignored us.

Daman-e-Koh. A park with manicured grounds and sweeping views overlooking the city, lake, and Faisal Mosque. Note a couple monkeys in the lower right. Their antics were amusing, though I am usually not a big fan.

A truck at a paint shop in an industrial area of the city. If you’ve never seen a Pakistani Bedford truck painted like this, they are truly amazing: a rolling work of art.

#8. Belgrade

As far as European capital cities go, Belgrade was one of the least interesting of all that I’ve seen over the decades. While I found a fine vegan cafe a block from my hotel, the city’s architecture was generally boring, the one park I found nearby to visit (around the historic Belgrade Fortress) was crowded and noisy (granted, it was a Saturday), and the botanical garden was closed for a private function. The biggest plus was that by visiting Serbia, there now remain only three countries in Europe that I haven’t seen! I was quite happy to leave at the end of the weekend.

Pioneer Park and the Presidential Palace. My very engaging city tour started here, the cleanest area of the Old Town.

Church of the Holy Trinity (Russian Orthodox). An absolutely gorgeous little church where a wedding reception was just concluding.

#7. Yerevan

My main purpose of traveling to Armenia was for hiking and trekking in the Lesser Caucasus and Geghama Mountains (see my earlier post). Yerevan seemed to me very congested (partly due to a national celebration on the day we returned). Our cultural guide was very knowledgeable, and she was determined to impart as much of her knowledge as humanly possible.

History Museum at the Republic Square, the main square of the city. The turbulent history of Armenia is never far from the surface of any discussion.

The Vagabond Hiker holding onto a Spider sculpture

Mount Ararat from the Cascade Complex, the nicest part of town. I was on my belly to capture this photo with the flowers in the foreground. Although in Turkey, Mt. Ararat is sacred to all Armenians.

#6. Baku

Having some extra time in Tbilisi, Georgia (see below), I took a 40 minute flight to Baku, Azerbaijan for a one night stay. One night and one full day was about the right amount of time to see the more interesting sites of this city, the lowest capital city in the world at 92 ft below sea level.

Sabir garden and monument, named after the famous Azeri satirical poet and philosopher. Our city tour began in this calm place, just outside the walled Old Town (note the wall in the background).

Maiden Tower. An interesting and mysterious history of this famous landmark in Baku.

The Crescent Hotel (**still** under construction), reflected in the Caspian Sea. The oil slicks that covered much of the water near the shore may not be evident here.

#5. Marrakech

As it was my third time in this amazing city, I didn’t stay long, only for the two nights that book-ended a climb of Mount Toubkal. The Majorelle Gardens and numerous historic sites were outside the scope of my visit. But I got a couple of photos nonetheless. The two that follow were shown in my Toubkal climbing blog from June. Pardon the repeat.

Interior courtyard of the Riad Alida. If you visit Marrakech, for certain stay in a traditional Riad. And if you are on a budget, you could do a lot worse than this family-run establishment just outside the Medina.

Koutoubia mosque at sunset, from the terrace of our restaurant. It’s minaret was damaged three months later during the severe earthquake that struck the Atlas Mountains.

#4. Riga

The fact that I ranked this lovely capital city of Latvia outside of my top 3 gives some idea of the level of gastronomic, cultural, and urban walking experiences I enjoyed last summer.

Nativity of Christ Orthodox Cathedral. For me a standout in a city with many interesting churches.

National Opera and Ballet, neither of which was performing in June.

Bastejkalna Park, a linear green space along the City Canal. The extensive Vērmane Garden nearby was also enjoyable, and not too crowded even on a warm(ish) Friday in June.

#3. Tbilisi

After my KE trek in Georgia was cancelled I quickly came up with some new plans (see my post from July), and based myself at a fantastic Airbnb in Old Town Tbilisi for 12 days. I was not disappointed. (The only downside was that the nightclubs seemed to go strong until 4 or 5 AM, even during the week. Bring earplugs.)

City view from above the Botanic Garden (behind me). The Old Town and surrounding areas were for the most part very clean and safe. I just wish the Botanic Garden had opened earlier; by late morning in July it was over 80 degrees and humid, so I saved it for a future visit.

Metekhi Virgin Mary Assumption Church at night, on a promontory overlooking the Kura River. This ancient Georgian-style church is the most picturesque in Tbilisi.

Tbilisi_Archive Restaurant entrance — The Restaurant Archive entrance, adjacent to the Wine Museum. This was the only fine dining experience I had in Tbilisi. The standard tourist restaurants were quite fine!

Night view of Tbilisi from my penthouse balcony at 5 Wine Rise.

#2. Luxembourg

My three nights’ stay in the upper town of this capital city of the Duchy of Luxembourg was time (and money!) well spent. With free public transport, several interesting museums, numerous parks and some good vegan cuisine, I found little to not like (other than the prices) about this ancient city. Honestly, it was a toss-up between Luxembourg and my chosen city for the top spot.

A panoramic view (at 0.5x) from the Pétrusse casemates to the lower city

A pathway along Parcs de la Pétrusse. The Alzette River joins this one a bit upstream from here. I didn’t have enough time to see all that I wanted to in the city, though I did visit an art exhibition and a local history museum.

Another view in the Parcs de la Pétrusse. A bit of the upper town, historically home to the burgesses and nobility, is seen on top of these cliffs.

#1. Vilnius

For some reason (most likely ignorance), my expectations for a two night stay in the capital of Lithuania were not high. They should have been! This city was absolutely stunning and more than deserved the European Capital of Culture designation in 2009. And the urban nature is second to none: some 46 percent of Vilnius is designated green space: parks, squares, and forests . To top it off, the fantastic restaurant, Rosehip Vegan Bistro, was a stone’s throw from my Airbnb. Whittling it down to six photos was very difficult. You’ll just have to visit Vilnius yourself!

Old Town Panorama from the Three Crosses Monument

Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania

In less than two weeks I depart California for Jordan. My time there will be divided between hiking in the Wadi Rum area in the south and enjoying some of the many cultural attractions, mostly in the north. Christmas Day will be spent exploring Petra (with about a million others I suppose). I’ll share some of the photos with you in January. Until then,

Happy Holidays!

The Vagabond Hiker

Although most of the nine days I spent in Armenia were comprised of hiking (three shorter day hikes and a four-day trek), at all times I felt deeply immersed in the culture, history, and religion of Armenia as we traveled from the capital of Yerevan to all corners of this fascinating country. Indeed, since becoming the first country in the world in 301 CE to adopt Christianity as its official religion, religion has never been far from any discussion of Armenia’s history.

The Caucasus is a geographic region located between the Black Sea to the West and the Caspian Sea to the East, essentially connecting eastern Europe with northwest Asia. (As such I have categorized them as both Europe and Asia for these blog posts). As can be seen in the map below, the mountains can be divided into the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. The trek and hikes in Armenia were of course in the Lesser range whereas my next blog post, from Georgia, will be in the Greater Caucasus Mountains.

Caucasus topographic map
_{(Bourrichon – fr:Bourrichon with English translations, additions, and corrections by Ketone16 (partly following Yuri Koryakov), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)}

Khor Virap Monastery. One of the most famous and religiously important sites in Armenia, is in the far west of this small country, close to the border with Turkey. It was our first stop on a long day of culture and hiking.

Mount Ararat in clouds from Khor Virap Monastery. Mount Ararat has a special place in every Armenian’s heart. Although located in Turkey, many refer to that area as “Western Armenia.” In fact, at 5137m, it is the highest mountain in Turkey. Note the cloud on the left of the photo that makes Little Ararat look like it’s erupting.

Smbataberd Fortress walls, seen during our first day hike, a hill traverse, in southern Armenia. Our slow pace and numerous stops during this hike were precursors of things to come.

Norovank Monastery in Gnishik gorge. This dramatically-sited monastery on our way to Lake Sevan was my favorite.

Orbelian’s caravanserai at the Selim Pass, from the 14th century. This lodging for travelers along the silk road is the best-preserved in Armenia.

Detail of Orbelian’s caravanserai entry with high reliefs of a winged animal to the left, and a bull to the right above the lintel.

Selim Pass vista near sunset. Much driving still remained, the first of three consecutive 5+ hour days of on often-decrepit roads.

Lake Sevan Best Western Hotel from pier in early AM. Lake Sevan is the largest in the Caucasus, located at 1900m above sea level. There was a wonderful heated outdoor pool; it was a shame we had no time to enjoy the facilities.

Haghpat Monastery, seen at the start of our second day’s hike, from there to Sanahin monastery. Both are on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

An unusual khachkar at Haghpat Monastery. Most of these Armenian carved cross *stelæ* have a variety of motifs, but do not depict Jesus.

View back towards Haghpat Monastery, showing well the landscape in the northeast of the country. According to World Atlas, Armenia is the 6th most mountainous country in the world.

Sanahin Monastery, the end of our 2nd day of hiking. It was a beautiful and peaceful location, less encumbered by tourists than many others. Afterwards, another long transfer to our lodging for the night, not aided by a road closure due to a landslide *en route*.

A khachkar near the start of our 3rd day of hiking, between Kobayr Monastery and Odzun Church.

Our group on the dramatic hillside traverse from the Kobayr to Odzun. This was for me the best of our day hikes, although slow hiking with many rests, a road closed from an accident, and horrendous traffic on our return to Yerevan in the evening made for another very long day.

Day 1 of our Geghama Mountains traverse trek: Sevaberd to Ajna Lake. Here a beautiful flowered meadow vista. The Geghama Mountains lie to the east of Yerevan. While they are not particularly dramatic, my enjoyment of the trek was greatly enhanced from the lack of other hikers.

Day 2 in the Geghama Mountains was the highlight of the entire trek. Here the view is back towards our camp on the far side of Ajna lake. More wonderful wildflowers! Note some snow on the left; the late winter snows had not yet completely melted.

View towards Azhdahak Peak in the middle ground, the high point of the mountain range, on Day 2. Its summit was our objective.

The Vagabond Hiker out in front of the other clients on Day 2. Our trek leader was fairly fast. Fortunately we had two guides for only 6 clients, enabling a range of hiking speeds.

Gerry and other clients crossing a modest snow field

Pyramid Bugle (*Ajuga pyramidalis*). Compare to Velvetbells from my Lago di Garda post last month.

One of many petroglyphs we saw in Day 3 of our trek. Unfortunately our guide wasn’t able to explain much about them.

A Lake Vank standing stone, at our Day 3 lunch stop. The lake wasn’t particularly photogenic, hence no photo.

Day 4 of our trek: a morning view from camp with a hot air balloon in the distance. Our camp was spectacularly situated on the edge of a high plateau.

A view towards the town of Garni, our destination, on Day 4. The ruins of the Havuts Tar Monastery complex are seen in the foreground.

After the four-day Geghama Mountains trek, one other client and I decided to leave the group and spend a night in Yerevan (which we were driving past anyway) rather than continue to a camp on Mount Aragats, the highest mountain in Armenia and a further 2 hours drive to the northwest. For several reasons, the two of us did not do that final hike, to Aragats’ South summit, the lowest and easiest of its four summits. Three of the other four clients did make the ascent the following day during a weather window. The photo below was taken by one from the South summit. Congrats to them, though I had no regrets at spending my final day in Armenia relaxing in Yerevan.

Mt Aragats South summit view towards the West and North (highest) summits

Stay tuned next week for the second installment of my Caucasus blogs, from Georgia.